Monday, June 16, 2014

The Creation of the Vegetable Garden...

Anything we do seems to be a "Project" and not a small scale project, for some reason...

Maybe, we just like the hard physical labor?

Maybe, it makes us feel ALIVE~?

Have I ever admitted to the 'blogosphere' that I'm a 'twist-tie' haorder? I even have them hanging on the garden fence from some new soaker hoses ...

What the heck is wrong with me?

This is what it looks like when you walk in to the new veggie garden, through the gate...

Me and my youngest daughter and my 3 year old grandson laid the brick deck/walk out of bricks from the demo project we done last October. No, it's not straight and it makes no sense at all. That's the fun of it though, because it looks like it's been here for ages...

As you're walking from the house toward the road, this is what you see...

There is a large planting area on the left hand side (North side) and a newly transformed veggie garden on the right hand side (South side)...

The entrance gate will probably always be here, up by the road. But, I would love a 'Grand Entrance" for the garden closer to the house. I'm toying with the idea of making it out of rock, with an old door entrance. Someday, we'll have a prettier fence too. Maybe, we'll have espaliered fruit trees running along the fence and driveway?

For now, this fencing is all just temporary, to keep the dogs out of the garden this year, until something more permanent can be constructed...

The elevation change from the highway, to the house is quite significant, so we capitalized on it and made different levels in the garden. It's actually a fully landscaped veggie garden, complete with gravel paths and rock steps. And, tons and tons, and tons of hay mulch, to keep the weeds down and amend the soil.

Have I ever mentioned to you that I'm a very 'lazy gardner?' Although, we sure worked our butts off creating the garden for me to be lazy in~!

Here's a view from the upper tier...

The upper tier is where I transplanted the 26 rose bushes from the demo project last October and I am just thrilled at the success rate I've had with them. I have roses blooming everywhere in this garden already...

Many more roses budding up and getting ready to bloom.

I have always wanted a large rose garden. Now, I have a HUGE ONE~!

I just love the boulders defining the top level. (We brought them down from the upper part of the property.) I adore the railroad tie borders around the vegetable garden portion.(A contractor on a construction job sold me 96 railroad ties - 5' ones- from a guard rail job he was completing, for $1 each)

And, the gravel paths to get you from place to place, courtesy of the local gravel pit owned by the 'Man-Child's' cousin...

The old plow was a gift from some dear friends that were moving and didn't want to leave it behind in their yard...

This awesome garden has been created with rock steps in various locations to traverse the elevation changes, but still keep things natural looking too.

It's still a work in progress, but it's a labor of love -

I JUST LOVE IT~!

(=

We even incorporated a patio area, so we could sit down and love it through the summer.

(Just don't trip on the garden implements right now...)

With a row of lavender in front of the patio area and at the sides, to smell inviting in the future too~!

We are trying to incorporate beautiful, low maintenance flowers throughout...

Even a small 'annual' flower plot has been incorporated. In a spot we intend to build 'cold frames' later this fall...

We're not done with it yet, but we're sure off to a great start...

We've planted raspberries there on the right, on the lower level below all the roses.

We have beets, carrots, 2 rows of potatoes. We've planted cucumbers, tomatoes and onions everywhere. And, we've tucking squash and melon plants all over the garden, and all around the rocks.

I missed the 'cold' season this Spring, for cool weather crops, so I planted pole beans on the pea trellis and bush beans to the sides.

We even found some beautiful grape vines and got them in and growing.

We have grapes already~!

It's simple to care for...

It has it's own, fully regulated irrigation system.

The irrigation system didn't cost much to create, a few hundred dollars in supplies. It's a simple design the 'Man-Child' came up with a few years ago at our other house and it's perfect for a vegetable garden.

It's so basic and inexpensive, I could probably install it myself -

It consists of a simple valve on the freezeless faucet. One side of the valve goes down through PVC pipe into a simple underground water delivery system. The other side of the valve is just hooked to a garden hose, for any manual watering of pots and such. Turn the valve on and this whole 'upper' portion of the yard waters all at the same time through soaker hoses. In 10, to 15 minutes, the whole garden is watered.

At each spot I planned a 'planting row,' we would use PVC elbows and bring up PVC risers from the underground system, with connectors, to simple metal hose valves for our soaker hose connections.

Doing it this way, we can turn a row on, or off, or add pressure, or delete pressure, just walking along the gravel path adjusting the valves to each row.

If I want to add another row in between the risers, it's simple - just add a double valve and another length of soaker hose...

It's probably the most versatile vegetable garden watering system around. It's easy to regulate, cheap to install and there are a lot of drains in the system, so it won't even need to be blown out in the Fall. It's also very 'Water-Wise' considering we live in the 2nd driest State in the Union - Utah...

The Man-Child even dug across the driveway and hooked the planters along the block wall to the irrigation system. All I have to do is turn it on at the faucet and the whole upper end of the yard waters all at one time.

We're dissing turning this planter box along the block wall into a simple cold frame also, to extend the growing season for the tomatoes and cucumbers.

You'll have to stay tuned, to see what we construct later in the year, to make us even 'lazier' gardeners in the future...

Is it ok to admit, "I'm Exhausted" and so is the 'Man-Child,' from all of this 'lazy gardener' creation and implementation...?

We have sure made a ton of progress this Spring and you just can't beat the view walking up to the garden from the house...

Or, back to the house from up by the garden...

We almost, almost have the interior of the block wall landscaped.

There's just one more spot we're going to be working on the week of July 4th. We've plotted and planned a 'Courtyard' off of the right side of the house (in the pic, notice how I deliberately cropped the right side?)

The 'Courtyard' will be off the backside of the garage and we have to get it completed before they can start framing the garage.

Your veggie garden is beautiful! Prettiest veggie garden I have seen, with roses and lavender, etc. And a great watering system! I like the boulders here and there and the old lawn chairs, too. Are your grapevines the purple "Concord" grapes? I have an old recipe for "Concord" grape pie with a crumb topping. Takes a little work but it used to get compliments:-))

Oh, shoot - I can't remember what kind the grapes are, but they're not anything like Concord. I actually got them at our native 'wildland' nursery, so they're a Utah / "dry desert" variety. I think that's why they're doing so well. I've tried the mainstream grape vines before and they just struggle in our dry heat. These ones are thriving (thank heavens) I would love your "Grape Pie" recipe - that sounds like something that would be fun for desert at one of my dinner parties... Hope you are having a wonderful week Marci~!(=

I think our mantra should be, "Go Big, or Go Home" sometimes...lolActually, we own a small construction company, so a lot of the heavy lifting is done by machines. Although, I we did everything in this garden by hand, but moving and setting the big rocks.Would it shock you if I admitted we done it in 2 weekends? (Awe - about 4 full days, aside form moving the big rocks)We're kind of crazy~!(=

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About Me

Well, my name is Jen...I've lived through my first "Mid-Life" thing and I'm currently in the process of "Creating Myself" and renovating an old, 1890's farmhouse and somewhat "neglected" acreage (homestead?).I've done alot of things in my life, but I always forgot to do things for me.